


All That Counts (Is here and now)

by LadyOrion



Series: Only You and I [8]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: First Dates, Fluff, Harry's an animal person fight me on it, Ice Cream, M/M, Post-Descendants 3, like seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-18 02:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20631914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOrion/pseuds/LadyOrion
Summary: Jay led Harry down the street, watching Harry’s face out of the corner of his eye as Harry got his first real taste of downtown Auradon. The first time Jay had been here was for Ben’s coronation, but he’d been too distracted by their plan to pay much attention. However, he’d been back many times since then, and watching Harry see it for the first time brought a smile to his face.“What?” Harry asked when he noticed Jay smiling, as they walked past shops and restaurant windows. Jay shook his head.“Nothing,” Jay said, coming to a stop outside of their destination.xTitle from "Glad You Came" by The Wanted





	All That Counts (Is here and now)

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyyyy posting this late at night. Oops. Anyway, enjoy!

**One Week Later (after “One Kiss”)**

“This is ridiculous,” Jay said to his reflection, leaning against the bathroom cabinet. His fingers gripped the edge of the sink. “You’re being stupid. Calm down.”

Evie sighed from outside the door. “Are you talking to yourself again, Jay?”

Jay jumped, spinning around. He made sure he was composed before opening the door. Evie stood outside, leaning against Jay’s bed. 

“No,” he denied, and Evie raised a neat eyebrow. “I wasn’t.”

“And I guess you also aren’t nervous about your date with Harry?” Evie asked.

“Of course not,” Jay said, fixing his hair with one hand. “Why would I be? We dated for over a year. Well, unofficially, so I guess this is our first ‘official’ date. But really, what’s the difference? I mean, we have more places to go, but he might not like where I’m taking him. This is a stupid idea, right? Should I think of something else?”

Evie blinked, and Jay rubbed his neck awkwardly. He sounded painfully nervous, even to himself.

“Jay, you do not need to change your plans,” Evie reassured. “He’ll love it. Now, here are the keys you wanted. The gold keys are from Ari; she says to use the small one for the door and the big one for the roof.”

Jay looked over the sets of keys, tucking them into his pocket. “Thanks E.”

Evie smiled, pulling him into a short hug. “No problem. You kids have fun,” she said with a wink as she left Jay’s room, probably heading back to her studio.

“I’m older than you,” Jay called after her, smiling amusedly. Fixing his hair one last time in the mirror, he walked down the hall and knocked on Harry’s bedroom door. 

The door opened, and Uma stood in the doorway, staring Jay down. Jay blinked; startled. He hadn’t even known Uma was here; she’d spent most of her time the past week at the castle, fulfilling her role as Ben and Mal’s advisor. 

“Uh, hey,” he said, a mixture between puzzled and amused. “Is Harry in here?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she said, eyes narrowing. 

However, her mysterious response was undermined by Harry’s voice calling, “Yeah” from somewhere in the room behind her. Uma turned around, glaring at something or someone Jay couldn’t see. 

“Shut up, Harry,” she hissed, then turned back to Jay. “What are your intentions with my first mate?”

Before Jay could respond to that, Harry appeared behind Uma, leaning over her shoulder. “Okay, Captain, stand down. No need to harass the man.”

Uma hummed noncommittally, but stepped aside to let Harry pass. “Have fun,” she said, eyeing Jay warningly. “But not too much fun.”

Harry winked and made a lewd gesture, laughing as Uma wrinkled her nose and slammed the door in his face, leaving Harry and Jay alone in the hallway. 

“What...was that?” Jay asked, unsure if he should feel amused or threatened. He settled for a mix of both, as was typical when it came to Uma. “Is she going to kill me in my sleep?”

“No,” Harry said confidently. “She’s jokin’. And even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t kill ya. I’d be very cross if she did.” He leaned over to peck Jay on the lips. “So what’s the plan?”

Jay and Harry walked down the stairs and exited the house, where a blue car was waiting for them in the driveway. Jay pulled out one of the sets of keys.

“I’m gonna drive us downtown,” he said. “I have something in mind, but we can wander around and explore too.”

“Whose car is this?” Harry asked, sliding into the passenger seat as Jay turned the key.

“Doug’s,” Jay answered. “Mal offered me hers, but I thought a purple limo might be a bit much. Also, that’s really hard to park downtown.” 

Jay pulled out of the driveway, handing his phone to Harry so that the pirate could search through his music for something to play. When they reached downtown Auradon, Jay pulled into a parking garage. He tucked the keys back into his pocket as they walked out onto the sidewalk.

“Come on, I have a place in mind,” Jay said. He reached out for Harry’s hand, then paused, glancing at Harry. Harry looked equally unsure, visibly casing the area, taking account of the people around them. Tentatively, Jay wrapped his fingers lightly around Harry’s wrist, his fingers tucked against Harry’s palm. His grip was light, Harry could easily pull away from this almost-handhold if he wanted. However, the pirate didn’t, relaxing even more as he noticed that no one around them seemed to care. 

Jay led Harry down the street, watching Harry’s face out of the corner of his eye as Harry got his first real taste of downtown Auradon. The first time Jay had been here was for Ben’s coronation, but he’d been too distracted by their plan to pay much attention. However, he’d been back many times since then, and watching Harry see it for the first time brought a smile to his face. 

“What?” Harry asked when he noticed Jay smiling, as they walked past shops and restaurant windows. Jay shook his head.

“Nothing,” Jay said, coming to a stop outside of their destination. Harry stopped beside him, looking up at the purple-and-green awning and the curly gold writing on the window. The sign above the door read ‘ _ Arendelle Ice Cream’ _ . 

“Ice cream?” Harry asked, blinking at the sign. 

“Yeah...is that okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve just never had ice cream before.”

Jay grinned. “I  _ know _ . One of the worst cruelties of our upbringing. Trust me, this place is so good; it’s my heaven.”

A bell dinged when Jay pushed open the door, leading Harry inside. The shop was small and quiet, with music playing quietly over the speakers. A few tables lined the wall, as well as a couple positioned in front of the window. The cashier, a tall young woman with dyed yellow hair, greeted them as they walked in. There was a father and daughter at the counter, paying for their ice cream. They smiled at Harry and Jay as they made their way out. Jay felt Harry tense up, and squeezed his wrist lightly. 

“It’s okay, they were just being friendly,” Jay said quietly. Harry relaxed again, his eyes falling to the floor in embarrassment. “Hey, it was weird for me too, at first. You’ll get used to it.”

Harry nodded, and Jay looked over the menu from where they stood.

“Do you want to go order with me, or do you want to sit down?” Jay asked. Harry took a seat at the nearest table, shrugging as he leaned back in his chair.

“You can order,” Harry said. “I’d have no clue what to even get. Just...pick whatever you think I’d like.”

The cashier smiled as Jay approached the counter. The shiny name tag on her shirt read ‘Lily’ in sharpie. “Hi, what can I get for you?”

“I’ll have a mint chocolate sundae, and then…” Jay frowned, looking contemplatively over the wide array of flavors. Which one would Harry like? He had no clue; any more than Harry did. Plus, there were so many good ones, it was hard to pick just one for Harry to try. 

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind. He lowered his voice so Harry wouldn’t hear him from across the little parlor. 

“Hey, so my boyfriend--” Is that what they were now? Maybe, but maybe not quite. Still, he didn’t have time to dump that complicated situation on this innocent employee. “Has never tried ice cream before, and has no idea what he wants. So I was wondering, and I know this isn’t on the menu, but could I get little sample bowls of each flavor? You can charge me whatever for it, I just want him to be able to try them all.”

The cashier, Lily, laughed a bit, keeping her voice low too. “Aw, that’s sweet of you. And yeah, sure, I can do that.” She pulled out a tray and started lining it with little bowls. “So, a regular scoop is 1.25 each. How about I give you about a half scoop of each one, all 20 flavors, for 12.50?” 

“Sounds great, thank you,” Jay said, smiling gratefully. Lily winked in acknowledgment, scooping ice cream into the bowls, and then making Jay’s sundae. Jay paid, dropping some extra in the tip jar, before brining the ice cream back to their table.

Harry looked up as Jay sat down, staring at the tray Jay set in front of him. He raised his eyebrows curiously.

“I didn’t know which one to get you,” Jay said, by way of an explanation. “So I just ordered a bit of everything, so you can try them all and decide which you like.”

“I didn’t even know there were this many kinds,” Harry said, picking up his spoon. He looked to be deciding which one to try first when he looked at Jay’s ice cream. “Your ice cream is green,” Harry said flatly. 

Jay raised an eyebrow, his spoon halfway to his mouth. “Yeah?”

“Why is it so green? Is it toxic?” Jay couldn’t help but snort at the look of true distrust Harry was giving his favorite flavor of ice cream. “Nothing is that color. That’s definitely rotten.”

“Ice cream doesn’t rot, babe,” Jay said, taking a bite. He scooped some more and held the spoon out for Harry. “Try it.”

Harry eyed the spoon suspiciously, shaking his head. Jay rolled his eyes, eating the spoonful himself. “Fine, then try one of yours.”

“Which one?” Harry asked, returning his attention back to his own array of flavors. 

“It doesn’t really matter,” Jay said, but he still glanced over the flavors, pointing at one. “This one’s Rocky Road; it’s chocolate.”

That piqued Harry’s interest immediately, and Jay grinned around a bit of his own ice cream. Harry’s love of chocolate was intense and ever-growing, ever since he’d tried it for the first time at Mal and Ben’s big engagement party. Jay watched as Harry took a bite. The pirate’s blue eyes instantly widened, his face lighting up. Jay grinned, watching Harry hum with delight and lick the spoon clean. 

“Good?” Jay asked, amused and endeared. 

“So fuckin’ good,” Harry said with a grin, tongue running over his lips. His gaze roamed over the flavors with a renewed curiosity, settling on another. “What’s this one?”

“Cookies and cream,” Jay said. “It’s vanilla with crushed oreos--those are a kind of cookie.”

Taking bites from his own mint ice cream periodically, Jay watched contentedly as Harry tried all the different flavors, chatting about whatever came to mind in between Jay’s explanation of each flavor and Harry’s subsequent rating of each. So far, Rocky Road was still in first place, with salted caramel as a close second. He’d yet to try one he didn’t like, even enjoying the coffee one Jay wasn’t very fond of.

It took Jay a solid 20 minutes to convince Harry to try the mint chocolate. Harry seemed to harbour a strong suspicion of the bright green ice cream. 

“You ate the blue one no problem,” Jay said laughingly, pointing to the cotton candy flavor. “And the purple raspberry one. What’s wrong with green?” 

Finally, Jay succeeded in needling Harry into taking a tentative bite of mint chocolate. Harry froze, silent for a couple moments. He swallowed, and said resignedly: “Okay, that’s delicious.”

Jay let out a celebratory whoop, smiling smugly as Harry made a face at him. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Harry rolled his eyes. “Okay, but Rocky Road is still better. Seriously, I think it might be my new true love."

“Debatable,” Jay said, slightly muffled by the spoon in his mouth. Harry laughed, and Jay’s chest glowed with warmth. He laid his hand out on the table, palm up. Harry looked at it, lips quirking in a small smile, and laid his own hand over Jay’s.

“It’s good,” Harry said, and Jay knew he wasn’t talking about the ice cream. “To be able to do this with you."

“It is,” Jay agreed, curling his fingers over Harry’s hand. He leaned across the table, and Harry’s lips were cool and sweet when Jay kissed them. “It really is.”

They finished their ice cream and continued on their way, wandering idly down the street. Suddenly, Jay realized Harry was no longer walking next to him. Turning around, he saw Harry a few paces back, rooted in front of a store window. Reading the sign above the door, Jay raised his eyebrows in surprise. 

“Do you wanna go in?” Jay asked, and Harry nodded, already opening the door, Jay following close behind him.

It was noisy in the pet shop. There were small animals like rabbits and gerbils and guinea pigs running about in their cages. The mechanical whirring and bubbling of the fish tanks lining the wall was occasionally drowned out by the chirping or screeching of one of the birds of varying sizes and colors, on stands and in cages. The only silent creatures were the reptiles, blinking in slow silence from atop logs and under heating lamps. 

Harry was delighted by all of them, and Jay marveled at the fact that he was still learning new things about the pirate. He never figured him for an animal person. Fierce fondness welled in his chest as he watched Harry whistle tunes to the birds, coo quietly to the guinea pigs, and discuss the weather with a python. 

“I had no idea you liked pets so much,” Jay remarked as Harry engaged in a staring contest with an axolotl. Harry shrugged.

“There weren’t really a ton of friendly animals on the Isle,” Harry said, and Jay nodded in agreement. “And Dad never wanted pets around.”

“My dad had Iago, but that bird’s a lunatic,” Jay said. “I always hated him. He terrified me when I was little, because he would always screech and snap whenever anyone came near him. Even Dad. Guess he lost whatever sanity he had when he was trapped in the lamp.” 

“Sharing it with your dad?” Harry remarked. “I don’t blame him.”

Jay chuckled. “Yeah, me neither.”

“Have you seen him?” Harry asked. “Since the barrier went down?” 

Jay shook his head. “No. I’ve been meaning to, and apparently he’s still on the Isle. I guess I just...I dunno.” He trailed off lamely. 

“Hey.” Jay felt Harry’s fingers trailing over his hand. “I...I could go with you...if you want.”

Smiling, Jay laced their fingers the rest of the way. “Thanks Harry.”

Of all the animals in the store, Harry’s favorite was the cats they had for adoption. Jay leaned against the wall, watching Harry sit in a wire pen with a small grey cat, stroking it’s head and pulling a feather toy across the floor for it to chase. When the cat made itself comfortable in Harry’s lap, he smiled up at Jay with such genuine excitement that Jay wished he could snap a picture. Then, remembering he could, he did just that. 

Also on his camera roll, immediately after, was a picture of Harry making a face, then a couple very blurry ones where Harry snatched the phone from his hand. The next 50 photos were a mixture of cats and snakes and rabbits and birds. 

When Harry finally managed to tear himself away from the pet store, they’d been there for almost 2 hours. They wandered a bit more, entering a few more stores, before heading back to the car. After a bit of driving, Harry frowned, looking at the window.

“We’re not headed back to Evie’s?”

Jay shook his head. “No,” he affirmed. “I’ve got one more stop for us.”

Harry tilted his head curiously, watching out the window as the city and suburbs faded out, leaving a more rural country scenery. After about 20 minutes of driving, the ocean was visible on the horizon. A few more, and Jay pulled into the driveway of a little house with all the lights off, situated a dozen yards from the sandy beach.

Harry grinned, jumping out of the car. “Okay, this is cool, but tell me we’re not breaking into this person’s house.” Despite his words, Jay thought the pirate didn’t actually sound opposed to the idea. Jay laughed, rolling his eyes.

“We are  _ not _ breaking in,” Jay said, pulling the keys from his pocket and jingling them. “It’s a friend from school’s house; her family comes here on weekends. She let me borrow it for tonight.”

“Mm, how generous,” Harry said as Jay unlocked the door, stepping inside and heading to the kitchen. 

“Yeah, it is,” Jay agreed, opening up the fridge and pulling out a box of pizza. He opened it up, about to put it in the oven for a few minutes, when Harry snagged a piece over his shoulder, biting into it. “Don’t you want it to be hot?”

Harry shook his head, taking another bite while he grabbed a second slice. “No way, I love cold pizza.”

“Heathen,” Jay shook his head, smiling, but relented, and they crashed on the couch, playing video games and eating pizza. After about an hour, Jay’s phone beeped. The alarm he’d set was going off. “Oh, hey, come on,” he said, pausing the level and standing up. 

Harry looked up in confusion, but followed him up the stairs. Jay reached for the other key on the ring, unlocking a raised door and unfolding the stairs. He beckoned Harry up after him, stepping out on the rooftop terrace. 

The sun was just sinking over the horizon, painting the blue-green sea with streaks of gold. The last light of day was unblocked by clouds, and the sky was orange-pink, quickly darkening to purple.

“Woah,” Harry murmured, marveling at the view. Jay reached over and brushed a wayward strand of hair behind the pirate’s ear, marveling at a different, but equally beautiful view. The pair laid back on a cushioned pool chair, watching the sun go down and the stars blink into view.

“Thanks for today,” Harry said softly, leaning into Jay’s shoulder and squeezing his hand lightly. “I had a lot of fun. We...we should keep doin’ it.”

“Yeah?” Jay said, his face splitting into a wide smile. 

“Yeah.”

Jay hummed, bringing their joined hands to his lips to press a kiss to the back of Harry’s hand. “Sorry we can’t swim today. We’re not secluded enough to skinny-dip,” he said with a laugh. “I just...I wanted to bring you here. An ocean without barriers.” 

Harry turned to look at him, surprised. “Ya...ya remembered.”

“Of course I remembered,” Jay said, quietly. “I never want to forget. Not any of this.”

Harry smiled. “Me neither.”

They kissed, and even with the sun having disappeared over the horizon, the world was golden.

**Author's Note:**

> Two more to go in the main part of this series! I'll see you all next Friday!


End file.
